Flying to every state in America has always been a life-long dream of mine turned
into a goal when I received my Private Pilot license in 1979. For the last two years,
Victoria and I had been telling people that we’ve flown to 42 states, including Alaska.
We have a large map at home with pins marking every airport we’ve landed but it lacked
pins in 8 states: Delaware, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, Maine, New
Hampshire and Hawaii. Here’s the prop-card we've displayed at fly-ins for the last
two years;

I knew that unless I was related to ‘Earthrounders’ Dick Rutan or Jon Johanson,
Hawaii was not going to happen...I’d be happy with landings in 49 United States
of America :-)
We’ve flown over Connecticut and New Jersey but didn’t have time to land so we don’t
count those two. As Victoria puts it, you either have to take something (buy gas)
or leave something (use the restroom :-) for the State to ‘count’ and get a pin in
the map.
With 3 days in the vacation bank, I planned a Thanksgiving week trip that would take
us from California to Maine and back in 10 days (Nov 21-30). Since the purpose of
the trip was to land in our last 7 states then ‘high-tail’ it back home, we were
unable to build in any visiting time (stay a day or two at each stop) for friends.
We did plan to overnight with a couple of friends along the way and have Thanksgiving
dinner with my Stepdad near Tulsa.
Now I know that many of you are thinking that 10 days might not be enough time but
I can assure you that with GOOD WEATHER and flying an RV, 10 days is more than enough
time to fly from the west coast to the east coast and back :-)
Worst case planning for our trip was 3 days to fly from California to Washington DC,
3 days to fly to the 7 New England states and 4 days to fly home. I've been using EAA's
free-to-members Aeroplanner for all flight planning but am also using AOPA's
Jeppesen-powered flight planner on occassion.
I’ve learned many things over 1000 hours of VFR cross-country flying in our RV; First
thing is that no matter what you plan, you will fly to where the weather is good,
regardless of the ‘plan’. Second, I’m pretty comfortable using (flying with) weather
forecasts for a 3-day period but anything after that is subject to change. Third, we
find that putting 6-7 hours on the hobbs is (comfortably) enough flying for one day.
Our preflight weather showed that leaving early Friday morning would have us
overnighting in Grove (near Tulsa) and landing Tangier Island (near Washington DC)
by Saturday night. The weather outlook for Sunday was forecast to be clear for us to
fly to our 7 remaining states. The straight line distance from Tangier Island in the
Chesapeake Bay to Sanford, Maine is ~400nm, not far at all in an RV so 7 states was
doable in a day if we chose to!
We departed Rosamond (L00) Skypark (50nm north of Los Angeles) at 7am on Friday morning
and contacted Joshua Approach then Los Angeles Center (ZLA) for flight following. In
lieu of filing flight plans, I ALWAYS use flight following when flying cross-country.
Once we reached our cruise altitude of 9500ft, our true airspeed showed ~155 KTAS with
a groundspeed of 210 KTS, WOW!!!!. We landed for fuel at St. Johns (SJN), AZ after
2.2hrs of smooth-air flying, normally a 3hr leg.

We continued on flying south of Albuquerque eastbound...

towards Dalhart (DHT), TX at no less than 205 KTS landing 2.1 hours later. We had lunch
at our favorite on-field diner (6 booths, 4 stools) and relaxed inside the FBO on the
couch next to the Bonanza and caught up with the day’s headline news;

We then departed on our last leg for the day landing Grove (GMJ) after 2hrs. I was
enjoying the 200+ KTS airspeeds that I just had to take a picture. Distance,
Bearing and Track is displayed on the left with ETA, ETE and Groundspeed (in Knots)
on the right;

Stats for the first day: 6.3 hours on the hobbs from California to the Oklahoma/Arkansas
border, yyessiirree! The trip to Grove normally takes about 8 hobbs hours (10 hours by
your wristwatch but we saved 2 hours)...I could get used to 200+ KTS in no time!
We spent the night at Gary and Connie’s, then departed Grove Saturday morning for Tangier
Island with a planned fuel stop in Kentucky. We started out over a scattered layer that
eventually went away.

By the time we’d found a working fuel pump at Lebanon-Springfield (6I2), KY 3.0hrs later,
we’d already tried fueling at Grayson County (M20) and Taylor County (AAS), KY.
Definitely got Kentucky well ‘pinned’!

We continued on towards the East Coast, and landed for fuel at Tappahannock (W79), VA.
Check out the BIG water tower located near the runway!

We then flew the last 15 minutes over-water to Tangier Island (TGI), then flew down the
runway before landing to let Grace, the owner of the Sunset Inn Bed & Breakfast know we’d
arrived. By the time we’d made a circle around the island and landed, she was there to
pick us up in the ‘limo’ golf cart :-) The hobbs showed 2.7hrs flight time from KY, and
we saw 195 KTS groundspeed along the way.

We’d made 4 fuel stops with a coast-to-coast trip time of 12.0 hours since leaving
Southern California :-) I was really happy with that but I knew that we’d have to
‘pay-up’ with headwinds on the way back...
Sunday morning, we awoke to hazy skies with a high overcast. Grace made a super
breakfast for us then we were on our way. After adding a quart of oil (to make 6),
we turned north for the short flight to Sussex County (GED), DE. The terminal building
was very ‘grand’ looking, almost like a big, beautiful house though the chain link fence
installed in front of the building looked useless.

From Sussex County, we flew the eastern seaboard coast overflying Atlantic City and some
sort of boat-community nearby;

We landed at Lakewood (N12), NJ where we found numerous planes (with similar N numbers)
belong to various flying clubs.

We visited with folks for quite awhile as it seemed they didn’t get very many homebuilts
flying into Lakewood, let alone any from California, so I took the time to share all I
could. It was nice visiting here!
And now came time for the most special leg of our entire flight, flying through New
York City, along the Hudson River, at 1000’ MSL!
Several days before leaving on our trip, I called someone who was based near NYC and whose
name I found in the RV White pages. I had purchased a TAC for New York, and I
wanted to ‘pick his brain’ on anything and everything I could about flying up the river.
He was very helpful, and with this call and my map, we were ready!
We departed Lakewood, which is ~45nm south of La Guardia, under hazy skies and then flew
north across the Atlantic Ocean towards the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. We monitored the
requisite frequency and flew at 1000’ MSL. We reached the Lower Bay, which lies between
Staten and Coney Islands and continued north flying past Brooklyn and Verrazano-Narrows
Bridge thus entering the Upper Bay on the Hudson River.

Even flying at 120 KIAS, things start to come into view really fast! Over Governor’s
Island, we had the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island on the left and the Brooklyn Bridge
on the right!

The frequency was VERY BUSY with people making position calls of which I had no idea where
those places were (79th street Bridge, Liberty State Park, Holland Tunnel etc). Victoria
took pictures while I looked real hard for other aircraft!
Off our right wing, we saw the Ground-Zero of the Twin Towers. It was a ‘somber’ sight
to see after having seen so much destruction on TV, September 11, 2001...

The skyline of New York is like no other skyline I’ve ever seen in my lifetime; so many
tall buildings in such a small geographical area. It almost didn’t look real... As we
continued up the river, we caught up to a tour helicopter, also flying north, and I let
him know I’d be passing off his right-side.
We saw the Empire State Building followed by Central Park; no mistaking that big, open
area with the lake in the middle!

As we flew farther north along the river, we could see the buildings getting smaller and
smaller and eventually turning into homes;

The floor of New York’s Class B airspace finally rose to 3000’ MSL so we turned direct
Meriden (MMK), CT and started a slow climb until we were clear of the Class B airspace.
Arriving to Meriden, we didn’t see the airport until we were on top of it as it was
located parallel and below a small ridge line.

We landed, visited the ‘facilities’ then continued on towards Sanford, ME. As we flew
clear of Hartford’s Class C airspace (pic below), Victoria started a conversation on her
family as her father grew up in Attleboro, Massachusetts, not to far from Providence,
Rhode Island...Rhode Island...then something ‘clicks’ in my brain...RHODE ISLAND!?!

Here I was on a trip to land in 7 states and I’m flying past Rhode Island towards Maine!
I checked the GPS and sure enough, I’d scrolled one-to-many waypoints in the flight plan
and missed my Rhode Island stop!
A right-90-degree turn had us flying parallel to the CT-MA border, and we landed at North
Central (SFZ) airport in Pawtucket, RI about 12 minutes later :-) Almost blew that one!

We’d planned on staying the night in Pawtucket, but I got to thinking that it sure would
be fun to say we flew from Southern California to Maine in 3 days :-) We topped off the
tanks, flew the last 45 minutes with a setting sun around Boston’s Class B to
Sanford (SFM), ME.
After landing and taxiing to the FBO, I shutdown the plane and unbuckled my seatbelts as
Victoria noted the hobbs (now at 16 hours total trip-time). As I stepped onto the wing,
I immediately noticed black oil running down my side of the plane in an unusual ‘flow
pattern’ that reached all the way back to the tail. A quick look of the underside showed
even more oil, YIKES! In less than 5 minutes, there was at least a 6" diameter pool of
oil that had dripped off the tail tiedown hook.
As the sun had just set, I knew I wasn’t going to be doing much troubleshooting then
(it got cold real fast!). I walked into the FBO and explained to the lady behind
the counter we were far from home with ‘massive’ oil leak (well, it looked massive :-)
She asked what kind of plane it was, and I told her that it was an ‘experimental RV-6A’...
"Ohhhh, we don’t work on experimentals!" was her immediate reply. It took a few
moments to assure her that I probably could fix it if I could see where the oil was
coming from and that I’d come in to ask if I might be able to borrow some solvent to
clean it up.
She directed me to her husband who was very busy with a plane that had a flat tire
somewhere on the airport. I was eventually able to use something called ZEP or maybe DEP
solvent but I had to use it right then and there as they were going to be closed the next
day.
So I pulled the plane towards the hangar, pulled the cowl (by flashlight), and proceeded
to ‘clean’ the plane with this ‘solvent’. I found out quickly that this solvent was
nothing like the solvent I get in California...This stuff worked about as good as using
a pressure washer with soap and water, but, heck, beggars can’t be choosers! While I was
cleaning, Victoria was renting a car they had available.
I cleaned up the plane best I could see (in darkness using a flashlight) then we pulled
the plane back to the ramp, loosely attached the cowl and tied it down. By this time, it
was really cold, we were really hungry so we drove to town for a steak dinner at a
steakhouse called The Steakhouse, in nearby Wells.
After dinner, we drove back towards the airport to the Super 8 that was right out the
airport gate and got on the phone to Rick Gray and Gary Sobek. Not yet knowing what
was wrong with the plane, I asked them to checkout the RV White pages and see if there
might be an RV’er nearby who could possibly help us out. Nick Knobil’s name came up
so we gave him a call.
Nick then tells me that there is an RV-6A based at Sanford and is owned by Carl and Pat
Beatrice, the same ‘Carl and Pat’ who I’ve met at Van’s Homecoming. Hey, wait a minute...
Carl and Pat live in New Hampshire. I even had their cell number listed in my cell phone
as I told them (at Van’s Homecoming this year) that we might be flying there way later in
the year. I put Carl’s number into my cellphone right then and there on the ramp at Van’s!
We had planned to call them later that evening to let them know we were in Maine, and that
if they didn’t have any plans the next day (Monday), we could stop in to see them in
New Hampshire. The oil leak threw all our plans out the window, and I had no idea they
based their plane in ME even though they lived in NH. What luck :-)
A 9pm call to Carl had us catching up on the last few months then planning to meet at 8am
the next day. Carl was ready to drive 30 miles one-way to come take us home, even though
it was getting late. I thanked him very much but told him we were settled in for the
night (thanks again Carl for the offer!).

We met Monday morning and pulled our plane to his nearby hangar. A check of the
dipstick showed we’d lost about a 1/4th quart of oil, and I’ve been told it only
takes a few ounces to make a mess on a plane. We then started the engine (cowl off),
and Victoria immediately saw oil dripping from the rear-baffle mounted oil cooler.
Inspection revealed the oil cooler was leaking from somewhere within.
With the ‘culprit’ now known, there was nothing more to do other than remove the oil
cooler, have breakfast then wait for Van’s to open to order a new oil cooler FedEx
overnight, which we did. Then it was time to play 'tourist' so....
We drove to nearby Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, places we’ve heard about so many times
over the years President’s Family has a home there. I’d have to say that Kennebunkport
is one of those ‘quaint’ places you see in the movies. We walked around Kennebunkport
and checked out all the little stores and shops.

Here's something new to me, but then again, I'm from California...Boats are
'shrink-wrapped' for the winter!

I bought a wooden sign ‘Kennebunk Town Limits’ that will one day hang in our yet-to-
be-built Rosamond Skypark home. I’ve been collecting souvenirs like this from all
over the country, and my favorite is a highway mile marker: ‘Key West, Mile 0’.
We returned the rental car then rode home with Carl to his home in Greenland, NH which
is located near the old Pease Air Force Base, now Pease International.
We treated Carl and Pat to a nice dinner at their favorite Chinese Restaurant then
returned home for an evening of hangar flying (Carl is a retired airline pilot and
Pat is Commercial rated). Here's a picture of the Beatrice's and their house;

Tuesday morning, I was able to help Pat with some computer questions she’d had, and
even found her Christmas Card list of addresses which she thought was lost.
The oil cooler arrived about 11am, and we had it installed, the plane fueled and
airborne by 3pm. We departed with Carl and Pat as a flight of two, and after a short
photo session, said our goodbyes and turned the plane towards Concord (CON), NH.

We landed behind a State Police Blackhawk Helicopter and stepped inside the FBO to check
the weather map. We then departed for the landing in our 49th State at Mt. Snow (4V8),
Vermont.
It had taken less that 3.5 years to fly to 49 States in our RV, and I made sure the
landing at Mt. Snow was great one. There was snow on the ground, and it was COLD so we
didn’t spend much time on the ground. We fueled the plane then took a picture to mark
this very special day! You can now call us 49’ers from California ;^)

From Mount Snow, we flew on top of a scattered to broken layer of clouds that extended
about 60nm to just the other side of Albany, and it was quite a beautiful site to watch
the setting sun and night lights appear as we approached Binghamton (BGM), NY. We’d put
about 3 hours flight time in the plane from Sanford to BGM.

Landing at Edwin A. Link Field in Binghamton had special meaning to me as I’ve been
traveling to Binghamton on the airlines about once a year for the last 18 years. In the
early years, I couldn’t tell Victoria that I was traveling to Binghamton, home of Link
Simulation. ‘Link’ was famous for building the nations first-ever flights simulators,
one of which is beautifully displayed in the airport lobby;

‘Link’ provided the flight simulators that our F-117 pilots trained on during the 80s at
Tonopah, NV and still supports the simulator now located at Holloman AFB, NM. I was
(and am) fortunate enough to work in F-117 Avionics and traveled many times to Link, in
secrecy, to help with F-117 flight simulation checkout prior to releasing it to the pilots.
I can honestly say that I have thousands and thousands of hours ‘flying’ the F-117 fighter!
After getting the plane put away for the night and getting a rental car, I took Victoria
to my favorite restaurant in Binghamton, Cortese, family owned and operated for over
50 years! After a fine Italian meal, I ordered (as I have always done) 3 pizzas to be
half-baked, then frozen for pickup the next day.
Wednesday morning, we stopped to take a picture of the Broome County Courthouse. We also
stopped back at Cortese (the cooks are there at 5am to start making pasta...) to pick up
the frozen pizzas and take pictures of the Cortese sign and the (F-)117 address on the
door;

We then ate breakfast at my favorite breakfast place, The Spot Diner.

We packed up the plane, taxied out, took a picture of the snow surrounding the airport.
The only snow we’d seen on the trip so far was the snow on the ground between Albany and
Binghamton, and the snow on the ground disappeared soon after takeoff.

We departed BGM for Grove City (29D), PA (2hrs) where we knew we’d find $2/gal fuel.
Grove City is home to Artisan Wendell August, maker of fine aluminum, bronze, pewter and
sterling silver pieces.
From Grove City, we continued on to Kokomo (OKK), IN (2hrs) where my college buddy
Scott Deyoe lives with his wife Chari and their 4 ‘ABCD’ kids: Alexandra, Brittany,
Christina and Diana. On arrival to OKK, I called my friend who brought the whole
family out, and I gave rides to family plus 3 neighbor kids.

That evening, we baked then ate the New York pizzas I’d flown in special ‘Air Delivery’.
We settled in for a night of relaxing in front of the TV watching movies.
Thursday morning, we were supposed to depart for Tulsa for Thanksgiving Dinner
with my Stepdad but the weather finally caught up to us; overcast with light snow
flurries. The plane was tucked away in a rented T-hangar, I called my Stepdad to let
him know we were ‘grounded’ then we spent a wonderful Thanksgiving Day in Kokomo with
the Deyoes.
Friday morning had more of the same though the TV said this was caused by the
‘Lake Effect’ off Lake Michigan. No problem, we spent another fun day with the family.
Saturday morning, the overcast was high enough for us to depart west past Lafayette
towards Champagne-Urbana where clears skies opened up. From there, we turned southwest
overflying St. Louis;

We continued on and landed at Cuba (UBX), MO for fuel, a 2hr flight from Kokomo. Our
Flightguide noted the runway as ‘ruff’ but we could see that it was in great shape.

We are still flying and happy with our Airchart Topographic Atlas. The Atlas has
all the WAC charts for the entire USA and also includes charts for all Class B and
Class Cairports. Flying across one page in the book equals about an (RV) hour's
flight time, and we never worry or wonder if we have the right map onboard :-)

Remembering Les Featherston from the week before, I called him and let him know we had
time to stop in and visit. The LAT/LON coordinates he gave me for ‘Rebels Bluff’ were
right on the money, and we landed on his very-well-kept grass runway about an hour after
leaving Cuba. The runway is 'covered' by the shadows of the trees;

Here are some pics looking down the runway (12/30) from both ends;

Les’ house can be seen through the trees on the right side of my plane in the
last picture;

We visited and enjoyed his company for almost 2 hours, and I can tell you that Les,
a retired airline pilot, would very much enjoy visits from any and all RVs who’d like
to stop in to say hi! You can find Les at Rebel’s Bluff;

Frequency 122.9

Latitude: N37 06.10

Longitude: W093 52.20

His strip is located ~2 miles north of Mount Vernon (2MO), Missouri, not far from
Joplin. Honest, stop in to say hello to Les and his wife Lynda if you are flying that way!
After leaving Rebel’s Bluff, we landed at Cleveland (95F), OK, about hour later. My
Stepdad was there to pick us up in no time, we drove into Tulsa for dinner with him,
his wife and his brother. We had an EXCELLENT dinner at the Silver Flame Steak House
then visited at home awhile before heading to bed.
Sunday morning, I checked weather and TFRs and saw our route would be 'severe clear'.
Following a BIG breakfast, we departed Cleveland for Borger (BGD), TX (1.6hrs), another
nice place to stop for fuel and take the courtesy car into town for lunch if you’d
like to!